Apparently people haven't gotten enough of The Secret, because now Moses is apparently the one who discovered the Law of Attraction.

Why does this stuff both annoy and inspire me? Is it just the cheesy production quality of such "spiritual" movies? Or is it the strong proclamations of Aristotelian "truths" and "laws" that would be better considered with maybe logic and as-if thinking?

Or perhaps it is the facile switching between egocentric wants and spiritual affectation, such as in this paragraph, which I find credulous:

Join millions of people from every corner of the globe in learning the most powerful manifestation tool in the history of the world. Then on one momentous day we’ll use the code to promote peace and compassion for all beings through over 1000 gatherings worldwide.

Of course, I was once into Tony Robbins, and worked for Ken Wilber. And even S.N. Goenka strongly exaggerates the claims of the technique of Vipassana.

Is it necessary to exaggerate and use hyperbole to get attention in this overcrowded world?

Why can't the World Cup be like this? :)

Good stuff today from Penelope Trunk (emphasis mine):

Even if you don’t want to launch a start-up, you still end up functioning like an entrepreneur in today’s new workplace. There is no long-term stability, so the way you create stability is with your skill set and your connections. You are the product, and you are the sales and marketing team for your product. On average, people today are changing jobs every two to five years, which means you must function like an entrepreneur nearly all of the time if you are going to bring in a steady paycheck.

Perhaps instead of asking "how's it going?" we should ask "how's business?"

A great article was published today on LifeClever about the oft mentioned claim that mastery of something takes about 10,000 hours of practice.

From what I've seen, this is true. This means that we are unlikely to master very many things! For it would take 5 years of 5.5 hours a day of practice, or 10 years of 2.75 hours a day of practice to master something by this formula.

Great musicians practice at least this much, if not double. My friends in the conservatory of music would practice 5-10 hours a day, in addition to music theory classes and ensemble practice. The best practice more, and have natural passion and talent, and practice more intelligently too.

What one thing would you like to master? What is your life purpose and passion?

For me, I find that I want to master so many things it's hard to narrow it down. But there are ways of seeing the multiple things I am working on mastering as "one thing"--just as Ken Wilber mastered the "one thing" of integrating everything.

Dean Radin of the Institute of Noetic Sciences has created chocolate, blessed by monks, that has a statistically significant positive effect on mood, verified by double-blind studies. Wow!

Read more about the science here.

This makes me want to learn how to bless my own chocolate. :)

If you haven't seen Flight of the Conchords, a comedy TV show about two guys from New Zealand who are in a band, then you are missing out on a hilarious meme, and some important lesson in modern marketing:


The lesson? Give your best stuff away for free...but have something else to sell too.

This video has received over 1.3 million views on YouTube. If you look at other Flight of the Conchords videos, most have received between 1-6 million views. Many, many people have sent me to watch these videos. But here's the deal: this video is an excerpt from the copy-protected episode that airs on cable television.

Many networks are shutting down "illegal" uploads of their shows to YouTube. These guys cut out the best part of their shows and uploaded them for free (or allowed them to be uploaded--I'm not sure). In my opinion, the non-singing parts of the show are pretty lame in comparison. But the point is that the popularity of this show started on YouTube, then moved to watching, renting, and purchasing the real show.

Ok, I just have to share one more video. :)

Ok, I admit it. I'm completely non-involved in American politics. I'm a bit embarrassed, honestly, but trying to give myself a little tiny education in the issues and current state of things by...*ahem*...watching YouTube videos.

Obama's video gave me goosebumps:


But then I didn't realize until about 3/4 of the way through that there isn't one bit of content in the entire video. What an excellent example of hypnosis!

This video contains exactly zero specific agendas or claims or platforms whatsoever. Just celebrities, an optimistic tone, and an upbeat pop tune in a major key. Oh, and nominalizations like "justice" and "equality"--static words devoid of any specific meaning. Is campaign finance reform "equality"? Is the war in Iraq/Afganistan/Iran "justice"? These things are left unspecified. Why? So you can fill in the blanks unconsciously and then feel like you agree with Obama, even though you know nothing about his platform at all.

This is not a critique of Barack Obama in anyway whatsoever. This is how politics (and hypnosis) works. This is merely my observation of the mass hypnosis that is political campaigning, which I find fascinating! :)

In a hypnotherapy session, the therapist might say "As you breathe out, you might imagine going to a place that is peaceful and relaxing...". This statement says nothing--on purpose--so that the therapist can fully honor the client's experience while also leading them to relax. These words make it seem like the therapist specified the location and therefore client and therapist are in agreement.

When Obama says "Yes we can heal this nation," this implies a response to someone saying "no, we cannot heal this nation," which is a fiction, but creates a "hallucination" or even a false memory of someone claiming this--especially some other political leader. It also leaves completely unspecified what "healing this nation" looks like in terms of specific political agendas, which means everyone can agree!

Wow! What fun.

I'm once again opening up my life coaching practice, after a period of hibernation due to the workload involved in starting a company.

If you are looking to make a change in your life--whether changing careers, finding a perfect relationship, discovering your purpose, or increasing your productivity--and are local to Boulder, CO, I'd love to work with you! (I prefer working with clients in person when possible. I find the work to be more powerful.)

The first session is a free consultation to see if we'd be a good fit. I've just secured a beautiful space for this powerful work to take place.

Please get in touch: andrewmcduffee [at] gmail [dot] com.

Or if you know someone who'd like coaching, referrals get 10% off a session for you and 10% off a session for the person referred.